


New Tricks

by theweddingofthefoxes



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Come, Cousin Rey, Embarrassment, Fighting, Homophobia, M/M, Modern AU, Pet Play, Sex Work, Sugar Baby, bad dad brendol, bad stepmother maritelle, collaring, degradation kink, role play
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:22:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28391601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theweddingofthefoxes/pseuds/theweddingofthefoxes
Summary: Kylo Ren is a broke grad student. Hux is a wealthy businessman who is looking for a pet and who's offering good terms -- but whose elegant outer shell might be more brittle than either of them realize. A piece of unexpected news may make the two of them realize they are suited for more than just pet games.
Relationships: Armitage Hux/Kylo Ren
Comments: 50
Kudos: 109





	1. Chapter 1

This was the second time Kylo had been in this restaurant to be questioned about making some money. The first was when Kylo was first starting graduate school a year ago, and he’d applied to be waitstaff. It was a stuffy place patronized by the sort of people who didn’t mind spending thirty dollars on a cup of leek soup, and Kylo had entertained some kind of hope that those people might tip well. The interview had gone well enough, but they never called him back. Kylo ended up getting a far worse-paying job at an art supply store, which had kept him from starving. But a few weeks ago, the owner sold the building to some conglomerate that was planning to tear it down, and Kylo found himself jobless once again, and back in the restaurant.

“What do you study?” the man who’d arranged to meet him -- Hux, that was his name -- asked, though his face was pointed at the menu. 

“Creative writing.”

“So you’re the creative sort.”

Kylo wasn’t sure exactly where this line of questioning was going or even if it would go anywhere at all. But he had to admit he felt a bit special, being taken to dinner by this well-dressed Englishman who stressed that he was treating, even if they did not come to any kind of agreement over the course of the meal. “Yes,” he said. “Creative enough to be accepted into the program, anyway.”

“That’s always a plus. I’m looking for someone who can be imaginative. Who won’t be daunted by the thought of pretending.”

They’d only sat down a few minutes ago, so it seemed as though this Hux wanted to get right to business. Their wine hadn’t even arrived yet. Hux continued. “And I am looking for someone who can _pretend_ , understand. The thought of a twenty-four-hour-long role-playing arrangement is exhausting, if you’ll allow me to be frank. I do not really care what it is that you actually are, just that you can act like something else.”

Kylo had no idea what to say to this, so he just ran his thumb along the rim of his water glass as though he were trying to get it to sing. “Well. I’m not an actor or anything, I think I should clarify.”

“Oh god, I couldn’t bear an actor. No. I don’t want one of those.”

“You want a writer who can. Pretend.”

“Precisely.”

“Well. I can do that. What, what do you want me to pretend?” Hux had made no attempt to lower his voice or appear furtive in any way, which Kylo found both terrifying and admirable. “I guess it depends on what you want me to pretend.”

Hux finally looked up from the menu. 

“What is your relationship to Miss Rey Skye?” he asked, as if he hadn’t heard the last thing Kylo had said.

“She’s my cousin.” 

“Ah. She had contacted me initially in response to an ad. I felt bad about turning her down, she was as charming as can be. But I was looking for a male companion, not a young lady.”

“She told me you’d placed an ad, yeah. For a personal companion.” The ad itself had not specified anything sexual, but Kylo knew that was just for the sake of plausible deniability. Nobody ever wanted to pay money for a pretty companion...at least not at first. Rey was also a poor student, so no wonder she’d had her eye on something like this, and she’d made it clear she expected Kylo to share the wealth if he landed the gig. _I PROMISE I’d have done the same for you!!!!_ she’d texted him after sending him Hux’s contact information. 

“I envy anyone with that sort of freeness to have conversations like that with family members. My family is rather cold, and I hardly have any to begin with.” He straightened in his chair and suddenly Kylo felt the full weight of his attention, the way the sun was utterly blinding after leaving a movie theater in the daytime. “Now. Let me lay a few things out for you. I’m shopping right now. I don’t care for cars or boats or horses the way other men do. I therefore consider you to be a luxury service provider and will pay you as such. In exchange for a salary, you’ll ensure my needs are met. Oh, thank you.”

To Kylo’s horror, the waiter had appeared with their wines. If it bothered Hux, though, he didn’t show it; he simply accepted the drinks with all the pleasantness of a man who had just been talking about last night’s basketball game. Kylo’s ears were hot but he said nothing, and when the man left, Hux said, “The staff here is incredible. Their discretion is second to none.”

“I applied to work here once,” Kylo confessed.

“Did you? Did you tell them you were some writer?”

“I told them what I was studying.”

“That’s why you weren’t hired, you know. They thought you’d put all the conversations into your books.” He laughed to see Kylo’s mouth fall open. “I mean it, they know what side their bread is buttered. That’s why I love it here. Now, where was I?”

“Your, uh, your needs being met,” said Kylo, knowing his voice had gone up about an octave. 

“Yes. Thank you. I am looking for a companion who will be an obedient pet for me at least one night a week, though it will likely be more. My schedule is rather erratic, so I cannot guarantee when that will be, but rest assured it will not interfere with your classes. I’m no cult leader, I won’t pull you away from your friends or family if there’s a wedding or a birthday or someone’s goldfish dies, but I do expect to place on your list of priorities as highly as a well-paying client would. Do you understand?”

“Mostly, yes.” Kylo’s mouth had gone dry, and he reached for his water instead of his wine. “Could you clarify what you mean by a pet?”

“A creature to stroke and admire and enjoy that can clean up after itself. But you want to know if I mean fucking.”

If Kylo’s ears were hot before, they could light a cigarette now. “I do.”

“I wouldn’t open things up that way, but it would be lovely to work towards. I do enjoy it, but there are things I like even better.” He smiled. “You look so enticing when you blush.”

That made things click a little louder. There was a reason they’d come to a public place to have this conversation, albeit a discreet one. 

“You like degradation?”

“Oh, that’s a harsh word, isn’t it? I just enjoy a bit of light embarrassment. Truly, light. I won’t make you wallow in filth or anything like that. I’d rather see a man blush than break him.” He drummed his fingers on the table. “A man I like, at any rate.”

“So I’d come by your place a few times a week and be a pet for you,” Kylo said, focusing on speaking evenly and loudly. 

“Yes.”

“There would potentially be sex later, but for right now, you just want to sort of, um, see me be like. A pet.”

“That is correct.”

“And how much would you pay me to do this?”

The number that Hux spoke was so large that Kylo had to chomp on his tongue to keep from shouting. This, too, pleased Hux. “Weekly, I would think. And you’ll be paid that rate through the trial period, just so you know I have a heart of gold. If you find it’s not for you, there’s no need to refund me. Buy yourself a textbook or two in exchange for the time I’ve taken from you.”

Suddenly the thought of a waiter knowing that he was a little fetish pet didn’t seem so bad.

“Is there like, an outfit?” Kylo asked.

“Like a suit? I’d prefer to have you in as little as possible, though I’d enjoy finding you a collar, and I’m sure we could find you some ears.” Hux raised two fingers to suggest a lop-eared rabbit. 

That didn’t seem so bad either. An absolutely absurd amount of money to wear some cat ears and let a wealthy businessman watch him act like an animal a couple of nights a week. Maybe not even touch him. Hux was only a bit shorter than Kylo, but was far slimmer and less muscled, so it wasn’t like Kylo couldn’t hold his own in a fight, should it come to that. If they kept it up for even a few months, Kylo’s debt would be obliterated. He could start saving for a house and focus on his studies instead of trying to work full-time on top of school. He could help Rey pay for her expenses, too. And if the whole thing felt too humiliating, he’d holler uncle and pretend he and Hux had never met. 

He’d role-played with partners before. That wasn’t any different, except it was free. Right?

“Do you mind if I ask why you’re doing this?” Kylo asked.

Hux seemed unfazed by that, too. 

“Out of boredom, really. Like I said, I don’t really care about the traditional outlets most people spend their wealth upon, and I don’t have any family to spoil other than my father, who I haven’t spoken to in years. I haven’t any interest in twinks who look like children and I’d like to spend my money on a good-looking man that I can really talk to and tailor an experience with.” He looked, for the very first time, a bit embarrassed himself. “I’ve never done this before, actually. You’d be my first. But I’ve spent a long time thinking about it. We can work together.”

He laughed.

“And you? Why are you doing this?”

“Well, money.”

“You agreed to meet a strange man with no guarantee of how much money awaited you. Is this perhaps something that would make a good book? Or do you yearn for a life that’s a bit more interesting than working at a cash register?”

Kylo wasn’t sure quite how to answer. Honestly, any money that Hux was willing to give him would have been more than Kylo was making, so it wasn’t like he needed to negotiate a kingly sum. But it didn’t hurt that Hux was beautiful and interesting and, in a weird and sort of self-serving way, kind. 

“Can I start you gentlemen off with something?” the waiter who had suddenly rematerialized while Kylo was thinking things over asked.

Hux smiled. “Yes, I know exactly what I’ll be having, thank you.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kylo and Hux embark on their unusual partnership, and Kylo realizes he's frighteningly good at guessing Hux's turn-ons.

Kylo’s only Wednesday class normally ended at six, but things had wrapped up a bit early, so he found himself in the driveway of Hux’s home fifteen minutes before they’d originally agreed to meet. Would it look too desperate to call and say he’d arrived? He ended up staying in his car to wait out the clock, trying to decide if he looked all right, knowing that he’d be getting undressed anyway but still worrying. 

To distract himself from himself, he scrutinized Hux’s house instead. He’d expected -- he wasn’t sure why, but he had -- something ostentatious to the point of ugly, a tacky, nouveau-riche mansion. Instead, the home was beautiful. Instead of being hidden behind gates, it was masked by stone walls thick with ivy, drooping willows, and sturdy bushes of lilac and rose. You couldn’t see it from the road. But when you turned up the long, winding driveway, you could see it, the stone house with long, narrow windows. Hux’s car was probably tucked away in the stone barn that had been converted into a garage, and if it weren’t for the lights on in the house, it would seem as if there were no one around for miles.

Perhaps Hux had anticipated how isolated the house was, and how it might seem a bit shady to call him here where no one could see or hear them. He’d encouraged Kylo to give ‘Miss Skye’ his best, subtly suggesting that he feel free to tell Rey where he was and who he was with. It struck Kylo, not for the first time, that underneath the confident, sly exterior, Hux might actually be nervous about impressing and reassuring Kylo, would be determined to make him happy so he’d stay in this agreement. He’d said this was his first time doing anything like this, after all. But why? It wasn’t like Hux would have any trouble finding a pet somewhere else if Kylo ended up bailing. 

Well. He could worry about that some other time. The second the clock in his car struck 6:30, he dialed Hux’s number to let him know he was outside.

Again, Kylo’s instincts had been way off. “I thought your butler might be letting me in,” he joked when Hux himself opened the front door. 

“Butler? What do you think I am, a duke?”

“Well, this does feel like a manor.” Inside, the house was full of rich dark wood, dark red carpets, and paintings in deep Baroque tones. The one that hung over the mantle depicted a tiger standing over the body of a 19th-century hunter, its mouth red with his blood. “That’s beautiful.”

“I had it commissioned,” Hux said, the pride clear in his voice. 

“You like ferocious animals, clearly.”

“I like animals that are both ferocious and loyal.” The hint wasn’t lost on Hux, and he smiled lazily, rolling the sleeves of his shirt up to his elbows. “And I like animals that know when to be which.”

It would have been a lie to say that he wasn’t at all nervous anymore, but Kylo felt a sudden punch of familiarity, the realization that the two of them were truly on the same page. This wouldn’t be hard. This might truly be the easiest money he’d ever made. 

“Maybe those animals need to be told.”

“That’s perfectly fine with me.” Already comfortable with commanding Kylo, he added, “Upstairs, then.” 

Hux’s room was more of the same decor-wise: a bed with an imposing dark wood headboard, a bathroom in a lush jungle green, a closet full of unshowy but elegant clothes, a side table with a bottle of blood-red wine and a single empty wineglass. There was one surprise, though, that Kylo couldn’t help but comment upon. “Oh! And you have a cat.” 

The tabby cat in question was square in the middle of the middle of the bed, licking the spaces between her back toes with quick, noisy, shameless slurps. 

“Yes. Is that all right? I forget to mention that entirely, if you’re allergic --”

“No, no, I like cats. Is she friendly?”

“Oh, yes.” He reached out and gave her a firm scritch behind the ear, which made her abandon her bath in favor of leaning into his hand. The way Hux did not break eye contact with Kylo as he did it made a bright sudden fire ignite in Kylo’s gut. After a moment, Hux scooped the cat up and placed her out in the hall, closing the door with a decisive click. 

“She won’t be jealous?” Kylo asked, grinning.

“She has every reason to be, doesn’t she?” Hux sat on the bed and reached for the wineglass and the bottle. In his shirtsleeves and bare feet, making himself comfortable in his own private space, pouring a drink, he was so remarkably beautiful that Kylo had a brief moment of feeling unreal, of feeling like he could not possibly be receiving such attention from this person outside of a dream. “Undress for me. Everything, please.”

 _Mild embarrassment_ , Kylo recalled. That was all. Hux wasn’t going to make him do anything -- what? Bad? Humiliating? He could feel his face boil already, but he forced himself to ask why. It was just something he wasn’t used to. Hux’s expression was rapt, like the lights had just gone down in the theater and the movie he’d bought midnight premiere tickets to was beginning. What was there to be embarrassed about? He kicked his jeans away, his boxers. He did not break Hux’s gaze. 

“Good boy,” Hux said crisply, and that -- that was--

He’d had partners say things to him that wound him up before, of course, but nothing like that.

His expression was clearly as naked as he was, because Hux smiled. 

“I have no ears for you just yet. I couldn’t decide on what I wanted. But I have something more important for you.” He set the now-filled wine glass on the side table and pulled open the uppermost drawer. “Would you like to see?”

Kylo nodded, dazed. 

“You’re allowed to speak, if you’d like. Unless I tell you that you can’t.”

“I thought pets didn’t speak.”

“Mine does.” Hux held up what he was looking for, and Kylo’s breath caught in his throat for a moment. A leather collar, finely made, Kylo could tell just by looking. “If we agree to keep going I’ll give you a tag to hang from it. On your knees, please.” 

Kylo sank to the carpet, slowly, mostly out of fear he’d keel over if he went too fast. 

“What do you think it should say?” Hux went on as he fastened the collar around Kylo’s neck. “The tag, I mean. I’ll have something engraved special, if you’re good. If you enjoy being good for me.”

Whether they actually got to that point in their partnership, Kylo realized, did not really matter in the moment. Hux just wanted to talk about it, imagine it. Hear Kylo say the words. Maybe Hux was a little bit afraid of making his fantasies real. Maybe it was easier to talk about having an obedient fucktoy than to command Kylo to actually be one. 

“‘Pet’ is very basic,” Kylo began. “But perhaps it’s perfectly to the point.”

“Yes,” Hux agreed, his eyes shining as he went to retrieve his wine. “It is plain, isn’t it? I suppose it depends on what kind of pet you are.” He leaned down to the level of Kylo’s ear and asked, not in a whisper but in a low, lazy voice, “Tell me what kind of pet you are.”

Kylo swallowed. 

A creative person, yes. He could do this.

“Not one of any pedigree,” he answered. “Maybe a stray. A wild dirty thing, something that was skulking around in your yard.”

Hux stepped away for just a moment, just long enough to retrieve his wine glass and sit on the edge of the bed, facing Kylo where he kneeled.

“Do you want to touch yourself?” Hux asked in that same low voice. “Be honest with me.”

“Yes.”

“Do that while you talk.”

He did not need to be told twice.

“Go on.”

Kylo took a few breaths. “You felt pity, but ambition,” he said. The words just--they were there, easy as when he was writing and he was feeling inspired. “You thought you could make something of something like me. And so you took me in. I didn’t feel caged or chained, but instead, I felt protected. Safe. So I…” He thought of the tiger, and the pride in Hux’s voice when he spoke of it. “So when someone came to harm you, I was ready. I heard and smelled them coming, and I attacked. And no one ever came for you again.” He decided he’d be bold now. Why not, this far along. “Except for me.”

Hux’s expression was no longer playful. He looked so absorbed by what Kylo was saying that he appeared almost disturbed. As though Kylo had ventured so far into his fantasies that he was stunned. 

It made Kylo freeze for a moment, nervous, but then Hux shook his head. “Keep going. Fuck. No need to stop.” 

“Did you--like that?”

“Yes. Oh, yes. You are the sort that I would gladly take in. And you certainly seem capable of protection, don’t you?” 

“Perhaps a guard dog is the right pet for you,” Kylo said, relieved that he hadn’t freaked Hux out. “A ferocious animal that would eat from your hand but chase off anyone who meant you harm.”

Hux leaned in again, the glass in one hand, and hooked one finger through Kylo’s collar with the other. 

“Will you object to kissing me?” he asked. 

“No.”

“I want to be kissing you while you come.”

“Where--”

“Don’t worry about that. I don’t care. I want to kiss you while you come.”

“Your carpet--”

“Do as I say.”

The carpet probably cost about as much as Kylo’s monthly rent, but the thought of marking it so intimately at Hux’s insistence was enough to get Kylo to reach climax, that and the strength of Hux’s arm as he pulled on the collar. The perfect temperature of overwhelm, not scalding, just perfect. Hux tasted like merlot and he kissed with real urgency, like he was drowning. He said it again when he finally pulled away, leaving Kylo panting.

“Yes. Good boy.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are going smoothly, until they suddenly aren't.

For the next three months or so, Kylo was called back to the elegant stone house about three times a week, save for the occasional stretches where Hux was on a business trip. Those would normally stretch across a work week, and Kylo would spend the time working on his novel, or on some poems that he finally had time to write. It reminded him of those old-timey composers who got patrons so they could devote themselves to writing music all day long, though he suspected nothing he was working on would be all that interesting. Still, it was a heartening prospect, living like a Writer with a capital W.

Then Hux would get home on a Friday, send some nice text confirming he’d made it back all right, and invite him over during the weekend to play. Every Saturday night, a payment automatically deposited into Kylo’s bank account, and every Saturday night the amount would make Kylo suck in his breath in disbelief. 

Most of the money Kylo was getting was either being saved or being quietly used to pay off any immediate bills. He was a little bit afraid of using it for something fun, if he was being honest. There was nothing wrong with what he was doing, or how he was getting it, but he felt nervous about the prospect of explaining to anyone besides Rey where he was getting the money to buy a sports car or a condo. Eventually he’d buy a motorcycle, he decided, but not right now. Maybe when it didn’t seem as strange for him to have some cash. For now, though, he just used the money for rent, for electric, for gas, and sometimes to buy wine or takeout. No need to let it burn a hole in his pocket. 

Deeper down, though, he was a little bit afraid that Hux was going to ask for it back. There was a nagging sensation that told him Hux would get tired of him, or he’d do something to make this strange beautiful unreal man angry, and he would be cast away and asked to repay all the money he’d been so foolishly handed. This had to be too good to be true, right? Sometimes when he spent the night, he’d wake up right at daybreak, before even early-bird Hux’s alarm had gone off, and watch Hux sleep with a sort of sour affection, a feeling like he had obtained the joy he felt watching Hux’s chest slowly rise and fall by illicit means. 

Imposter syndrome, Rey had said when he’d let her in on his doubts. She’d prodded, asking if Hux had done anything to make him feel like his fears were realistic, and after her cross-examination she nodded and declared her diagnosis. “You hit a jackpot and now you don’t feel like you worked for it,” she told him the next time they got tacos -- his treat, of course. “But it’s been weeks. If he didn’t really like you, why on earth would he bother?”

Why indeed? She was right.

The fear never completely left Kylo’s mind, but it was easy to push it to the back burner. They had a sort of routine and it was familiar and easy and fun. Most nights, Hux got off on watching and listening to Kylo, and then they had showered together, and then they spent a long while lounging in Hux’s bed, watching television or reading or writing or sometimes eating over absurd, fancy lacquer trays that were decorated with calligraphed reeds and cranes. Hux was tolerant enough of Kylo’s desire to eat takeout in bed, and delighted in tearing off a bite of pizza crust or grabbing a single fry to offer as a treat, as though, as always, Kylo were a beloved hound. But the thought of getting crumbs in his comforter was enough to make Hux’s hands shake. “Please,” he’d say, if there was even a second that it seemed like something might get on the blanket. “Please, don’t.”

That wasn’t Hux’s only idiosyncrasy, though Kylo figured that a man who was willing to spend so much money this way was entitled to his quirks. He seemed to know everybody, and had connections everywhere, but he didn’t seem to have any friends, or people he was close to. More than once Kylo suspected that he himself might be the closest thing that Hux had to a friend, which seemed insane. This person, this man who was charming, and generous, and who did everything so easily…

Most of all, Hux loved to talk about himself -- his work, places he had traveled, whatever he’d just last read or watched, his kinks, the sorts of things that turned him on, the sorts of people that he was attracted to. On those topics, he was open and effusive, and often went off on long tangents. Kylo didn’t know enough about accents to know exactly what was happening, but he could hear Hux’s accent slide gently around as he became less concerned with sounding elegant and controlled. It might be easier if Hux had mentioned where he’d grown up. 

But Hux did not ever talk about his own upbringing. It was as if he had simply emerged fully-formed from the ether at the age of eighteen with a briefcase and a wad of cash. He was as relaxed and pleasant as ever when Kylo told stories from his childhood. But he never chose to do the same, and he was always slippery when asked about something he did or liked when he was young. Usually he’d give an example from college.

“What did you think you were going to be doing for a living when you were a child?”

“Well, I originally went to college for aerospace science, if you can believe that. I really did think that I was going to be a rocket scientist, but when I took a finance class for my minor I…” 

It would be like that. Over time, Kylo gathered that Hux had a father and a stepmother, and he did not particularly like either of them. He had spent his youth in England but came to the States in his twenties and had subsequently made his fortune, and he was now apparently determined to spend it on Kylo. 

“Let me check the mail,” Hux said as he let Kylo in after class one Friday. “I think it’s finally come, I do appreciate your patience.”

‘It’ was the collar that he and Kylo had decided upon together. Kylo made himself comfortable on the sofa next to the cat while Hux went out to the mailbox at the end of the end of the wandering driveway. It had been custom ordered from Italy, made of fine leather, and with an engraved tag that read ‘Pet’, the simple name that for some reason neither of them ever tired of. How basic. Pet. And yet, it seemed to say it all. Kept, lovingly.

“Why don’t you open it?” Hux asked, handing the little cardboard box to Kylo as he frowned over the rest of the mail. “I’ll see what Maratelle wants in the meantime.”

“Hm?”

“My stepmother.” Hux flashed the envelope, which lay on the top of the small pile of bills and credit card offers, in Kylo’s direction. “God knows what for. I didn’t even know she had this address, honestly.”

He sat down next to Kylo, who was busy trying to pick the tape off the package with his fingernails, and tore the envelope open. 

“Wish I was a pet like you,” Kylo told the tabby cat. “Then I’d actually be able to get this thing open. Hux, do you have a kn-”

But Hux had risen to his feet, looking like he had seen a ghost, and before Kylo could go a single syllable further, he had bolted from the room to the little downstairs half-bath under the stairs, to retch dryly over the sink. 

“Hux?”

Either he couldn’t hear Kylo, or he couldn’t answer, or he didn’t want to. 

The letter from Maratelle still sat on the couch, and Kylo decided now wasn’t the time to be shy about reading it. If something was really wrong, maybe he could do something to help--?

It read:

_Armitage,_

_I am writing to inform you that your father died last Sunday of a very brief illness. By the time you get this letter, he will have already been buried, so there is no need for you to book a flight. He was rather insistent that he not have a funeral, and his entire estate has been left to me, so there is nothing for you to come claim. You are welcome to think whatever you wish about that, but please know that I did argue that you ought to have inherited the land at least, or perhaps some of the furniture. Regardless, you are in no way lacking in this world, at least not financially, so I feel no qualms about accepting the terms of the will._

_I will not delude myself into believing that Brendol was a perfect man or that he was entirely in the right when it came to the problems between the two of you. However, you had many opportunities to mend things. Perhaps if you had given up your insistence upon shocking your father by seeing men and found a good woman to marry, things would have been easier for you both in his later years. I suppose none of that matters now._

_Below is my lawyer’s phone number if you truly wish to have a tiresome battle over the estate._

_-M.H._

When Kylo looked up, Hux was standing in the doorway, still looking pale but now with an expression on his face like a dog about to bite.

“Why did you read that?” he asked, and he had not raised his voice but it rang out through the room anyway. 

“I just-- I wanted to know what had--” Kylo’s throat had never gone so dry so fast. 

“Why did you think you needed to know?”

“You were upset?”

“Not everything that upsets me is yours to know.”

“I just wanted to he--”

“To help? Help me do what?” Hux stepped a few feet closer and for the first time ever, Kylo felt afraid of him. Not that Hux was going to hurt him. Physically. More like--afraid that Hux would hate him. Did hate him. “Help a dead man forgive me for disgusting him for a decade?”

“That’s not fair.”

“It’s not fair of you to help yourself to my private things!” Finally, finally, Hux had risen his voice. 

“I had no way of knowing that!”

“You had no way of knowing not to read the letter? Consider this: don’t do it. In the future--” And Hux took a shuddering breath, like he suddenly could not quite breathe. “Just don’t.”

He rubbed the very center of his forehead roughly, right between his eyes, and did not look at Kylo when he added, “Leave.”

“I’m sorry.” Every word Kylo spoke sounded worse in his own head, his voice childish and desperate. 

“The fact you are sorry does not change the fact I am telling you to leave my house immediately. Do as I say.”

It would be the easiest thing in the world to keep arguing, and all Kylo wanted to do was exactly that. Pick the scab harder and harder until he was left with a handful of blood and a terrible hard splinter of a feeling in his heart. But if he had any intention of staying in Hux’s good graces, he would do what any obedient pet would do, and obey his master’s command. Even if he hated it. 

“Yes,” he murmured, picking up the unopened box and tucking it under his arm. 

When he shut the door behind him, he realized it was the first time he had followed a command of Hux’s without a word of praise to show for it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow! I've had a hell of a past month, and no time or energy to write, so I'm very sorry for the delay, but now there's something to read! Things are getting Difficult for everyone, huh? 
> 
> Thanks for all the nice words and Tweets, as always!

**Author's Note:**

> Gotta love when a Twitter joke turns into a full-blown idea. I hope you enjoy!


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